Last panel of the day: "Play and Pathways: How Gaming and Esports Enhance Student Engagement," moderated again by Tobias @borie.bsky.social , with James Fraser-Murison, Milo Van Heugten, and Désiré Koussavo. We're using esports a lot with our students. Why does esports work with the students?

Next at #GEIW2026: "The Future of Youth in Esports: Safety, Belonging, and Education" with Tobias Scholz @borie.bsky.social (University of Agder) and Kristelle Lavallee (Discord).

Next in #GEIW2026: "Building Academic Esports: Policy, Structure, and Legitimacy" with Graham Ashton, Dr. Brett Abarbanel, and Nepomuk Nothelfer. Let's skip bios! Semi-seriously encourage you to look up Defining academic esports. Conceived by @borie.bsky.social "esports designed with ed purpose"

First afternoon session today at #GEIW2026: "Why Education is the Next Growth Engine for Esports" with Pia Büsecker, Jesse "Jerax" Vainikka, and Hannamags Byrne. Jerax: Started with having fun, social activity. Later competition, play at my skill level. Now I have much better understanding.

Last session of #GEIW2026 before lunch: "Global Standards, Integrity, and the Future of Games and Esports" with Daniele Schmidt-Fischer, Michael Lewis, Sergi Mesonero, and Stephen Hanna. Should games and esports even be standardized at all?

Noon panel at #GEIW2026 is "Esports for Publishers: Past, Present, Future" with Bernd Gottsmann, Anne Banschbach, Atila Yesildag, and Anna Baumann. Anna: Professionalism has developed over the years. Past 15 years, tried to hit NFL before hit economics of local football club. Rewind 10-12 years.

Next up at #GEIW2026, Esports Integrity Challenges and Solutions with Leandro Toscano, Mark Azzi, Pierre-Xavier Chomiac de Sas, and Rodolphe Ruffié Farrugia. Joining this panel already in progress... Mark: Inception of our idea was necessary function to maintain status as integrity body.

IMPACT Live at IEM Cologne is starting soon. First some opening remarks from Sam Cooke, Alfie Wright, and Stephen Hanna. Followed by several hours of talks about the esports industry, integrity in esports, and esports education. #GEIW2026

Nearing the end of #SCMS26, and guess what's still left to talk about? P18, Reexamining Esports with @a-c-cote.bsky.social, @maxwellfoxman.bsky.social, Keung Yoon Bae, and Taylore Woodhouse. Starting in 30 min in Alpine 1.

So far, reports from O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport indicate security lines are under 15 minutes. #SCMS26

Rise and shine, #scms26! We've got a scintillating panel to start the final day of the conference. Feeling the Virtual: Embodiment and Sensation in Games, Porn, and Haptic Media. @daveparisi.bsky.social, @teddymax.bsky.social, @mkaisar.bsky.social, and Cecilia Chen.

Next up at #scms26 is L10, a fantastic looking roundtable on Institutions of Game Histories with @lainenooney.bsky.social, @noahspringer.com, Jeremy Saucier, and special guest @aarontram.bsky.social, moderated by @liebenwalde.bsky.social. Should be a great conversation!

Thanks to everyone who came out! You can read the full paper here: gameartsinternationalnet.itch.io/

Panel E1 at #scms2026: Sorry I didn't live-post this! Really amazing conversation about game history. I'm going to post some notes to self about some big take-aways.

Hello #SCMS2026! Excited for this panel, C20 with @kategalloway.bsky.social, @oscarmoralde.com, and @hyeonjin.bsky.social: Embodying and Performing Gameworld Sonic Environments. (Sponsor: Sound and Music Studies SIG.) First up: Galloway.

I'll be at #scms26 at 2:15pm today (Session C) with @hyeonjin.bsky.social and @kategalloway.bsky.social! Drop by

If you’re headed to the @scmstudies.bsky.social conference in Chicago this week, I’ve put together this feed that pulls in every post tagged with #SCMS26 to make it easy to connect and follow along! Say hey if I’ll see you there! ✌️

Our (@mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and I) book GAME STUDIES: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD is officially OUT everywhere in the world except the US for some reason. So here is an actual thread about why we wrote it and what we were trying to achieve with it.

📢 THIS Friday Jan 23 @ 2pm ET 📢 🗡️📜🕹️ Cameron Kunzelman talks Assassin’s Creed, history, and how the franchise explores freedom, control, and conspiracy across time. 🗡️📜🕹️ 🎟️ TIX + Info: buff.ly/P2lVM1D 💸 Our talks are always FREE and PUBLIC. DONATE: buff.ly/QUhQANh

Putting a final exam I'm Blackboard. The "✨ Auto-generate question" option from the assessment drop-down menu is, I assume, a direct line to the Provost to inform them that the instructor is incompetent. Does anybody out there know for sure?

Family Enters Crisis Talks After Learning Restaurant Has 45-Minute Wait http://theonion.com/family-enters-crisis-talks-after-learning-restaurant-ha-1819577952/

Concise story from NPR about tuition cost changes over time. It's one thing to hear that tuition at 4-year universities has risen by 100% over the last 30 years, and it's another to see it visualized and put in context with tuition at Purdue, Harvard, etc.

I've been playing Q-UP, a brilliant and deeply weird incremental game with an esports theme. It starts with a simple coin flip and spirals into a fugue of emergent mechanics. I'll post some thoughts here as I idly play… store.steampowered.com/app/3730790/...

Thrilled to be presenting today at the premier conference in the study of #esports, the Esports Research Network Conference! #EsportsEDU This is being livestreamed *right now* & continuously through Friday in successive handoffs between global regions. Catch it at twitch.tv/esportsresearchnetwork

👀 Amazing insider's perspective on the Pro Tour from @jimdavismtg.bsky.social featuring Reid Duke. I know I'll be citing this one I'm the future! youtu.be/3crdirj9quM?...

Shout-out to Netflix subtitles for making "squelching" part of our national lexicon.

Today a piece from @teamliquid.com's Newsroom came out talking about collegiate esports degree programs, and I had the pleasure of being interviewed for it! teamliquid.com/news/world-c... The piece came out great - it weaves together many perspectives and addresses challenges in the space.

Local Professor Competes for $400 in Prizes on MTG Arena I competed in this weekend's Arena Direct on MTG Arena. As I try to get there in the video, I talk about something I've previously published on - the professional history of MTG. The game is what I would call a "peripheral esport."

The State Department under Rubio is resuming the processing of student and visiting scholar visas after a halt of nearly a month. But it's now checking social media accounts of applicants to look for what it calls "hostility" to the U.S. Story: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/u...

All will be bedazzled.

The most exciting part about a summer to-do list is not yet knowing which items I'm going to end up leaving unfinished this time around!

Grades in ✅️ Productive writing retreat this week ✅️ Last-minute end-of-semester grant submitted ✅️ Talk given at the Scholastic Esports Expo in Manitoba ✅️ Aww yeah, now I can enjoy the rest of this work trip and get summer started in style. Have a great break, academic friends!

Here's a little spelling trick: whenever I try to spell the word "occasionally," I say to myself "don't fuck this up like you did last time," and I carefully think through how to spell it: O-C-A-S-S-I-O-N-A-L-L-Y then I press space and see the little squiggly red line reminding me that I'm hopeless.

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

AI and the Tommy Boy-ification of Higher Ed.

What's it called when Billy Mays can't be there in person to get a tough stain out but sends a surrogate instead? Proxy Clean

Happening on UND campus today and tomorrow: the finals for Dakota Collegiate Rocket League! m.twitch.tv/dakotacolleg... One of the most hype, high-energy esports events in the collegiate scene and super proud that UND gets to host it.

Introducing the latest and greatest in generative AI technology: you Play YOU ARE GENERATIVE AI now! direkris.itch.io/genai

new pinned post: my cv! my current employment ends in june and i'm looking for work and gigs! hire me to do narrative design / writing for digital or tabletop games, commission me to make an art game for a gallery, invite me to speak remotely at your school. or simply write me into your will and die

Been a while since I stayed up for a midnight preorder/release! Luckily got through with one retailer while my other Switch 2 order sat in a cart I couldn't check out. Okay, off to bed. Looking forward to telling the kids the good news in the morning :)

Sorry, it's just been one of those [lifetimes].

Katherine Maher, president and CEO of National Public Radio, talks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the White House proposal to eliminate federal funding for public media.

“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” Harvard attorneys wrote to federal officials. “Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms.” If you’ve never given to Harvard, GIVE NOW! search.app/M76p3GzTmMuc...

Saw the #minecraftmovie with my family and was actually shocked at how much audience participation happened throughout. It was like Rocky Horror-levels with the tweens and teens applauding every little inside reference. Might sound annoying but it was exciting to experience.

Friends at #scms25... if you heard me talking about the doc I am working on and wanted a quick link here we are: www.kickstarter.com/projects/car...

Next in P19 of #scms25 is John Vanderhoef: Blink and You'll Miss it: Feeling and Fighting Time in Before Your Eyes. In Before Your Eyes draws our attention to blinking. Blink and you'll surrender. Benny conveys biography through a player's eyeblinks. Registered blinks advance key moments.

Next in P19 of #scms25 is Wendi Sierra, Gaming for the Seventh Generation: Indigenous Futurisms in Video Games. Payne is reading paper since she could not be here.

Okay I'm arriving inexcusably late for P19 of #scms25, The Politics and Possibilities of GameTime. Starting with @gasmoney.bsky.social, "Flickering, Shimmering, and Ghosting: Deep Learning Super Sampling and the New Aesthetics of Temporality."

Finally in O19 in #scms25, Paize Keulemans, Autopoeisis in Song-Dynasty Poetry, Ming-Dynasty Novels and the Game of Go. Bit of a left turn, focus on great novels in China. Romance of the Three Kingdoms has influence on things like Dynasty Warriors franchise.